Sarnafil lead-look roof for listed school

Sarnafil's G410-15ELF single ply membrane and decor profile standing seam in lead-look dark grey provided a perfect solution for Grade II-listed Davington Primary School.

When Kent County Council commissioned architect Cattell Skinner to design a brand new building on the site of an existing primary school in Faversham, the team faced the familiar challenges of building in the education sector: balancing function and aesthetics against cost-effectiveness and environmental performance.

However, Davington Primary School presented an added challenge.

Because the original building was Grade II-listed, the new single-storey, three-classroom block structure had to complement the 1882-constructed school's aesthetics in accordance with English Heritage guidelines.

To ensure compliance, the council assigned a conservation officer to the project, who was particularly keen for the new roof to feature traditional metal cladding.

But with a modest budget of just GBP475,000, a sudden rise in the price of metal put the project in jeopardy, as Cattell Skinner's Keith Cattell explains.

"We originally planned to use clay tiles combined with zinc cladding, but just as the job started contractor prices rocketed due to the demand for zinc, so we had to drop it".

"It was a difficult situation".

Thankfully, though, Sarnafil's G410-15ELF single ply membrane and Decor Profile standing seam in lead-look Dark Grey provided the perfect solution.

Main contractor BEC Construction commissioned Southern Membranes to install the roof, where Sarnafil field technician Andy Smith then worked as a specialist installer of the Sarnafil system.

"It was a complicated job," he recalls.

"The roof was a combination of clay tiles and panels of Sarnafil, so we had to create several 'secret' gutters between the two so that they would join seamlessly".

The roof's design also included several feature-windows.

"There were lots of unusual, tricky details, such as window recesses and dorma windows along the roof top, as well as traditional gable ends," Andy adds.

"These were all finished with Sarnafil, which is unusual as you'd normally use metal cladding".

"It worked very well".

"Overall, the roof looked brilliant." Keith agrees that Sarnafil was a successful substitute for lead".

"We're very pleased, as are the school and conservation department".

"The roof featured a lot of complicated roof-lights and shapes and the Sarnafil leant itself to the shaping that you'd normally achieve with metal sheeting".

"It also enabled us to achieve our aesthetic requirements as it looks exactly like a lead roof - it is difficult to tell the difference at a distance".

Sarnafil's 'Building Better Learning Environments' brochure outlines its support for the Government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative, which encourages the construction industry and its educational clients to look more closely at designing, building and maintaining schools in a way that takes whole life costs and environmental performance into account.

Free copies of the brochure are available by calling Rebecca Crossfield on 01603 748985, emailing crossfield.rebecca@sarnafil.co.uk or requesting it online.

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